Katrina and New Orleans

By Andrea Velasquez
October 2007

The effect of Hurricane Katrina on New Orleans was catastrophic and long-lasting. Though Katrina missed the city, the storm surge caused levee breaches and precipitated the worst engineering disaster in U.S. history (Kilpatrick). Eighty percent of New Orleans was flooded, with some parts under 15 feet of water. Ninety percent of the residents of Southeast Louisiana were evacuated in the most successful evacuation of a major urban area in the nation’s history.

Despite this, many remained mainly elderly and the poor. The city flooded due primarily to the levee system. The entire Southeastern Louisiana region was declared a disaster area by the Federal Government before Hurricane Katrina made landfall. The extensive flooding stranded many residents, who remained long after Hurricane Katrina had passed. Stranded survivors dotted the tops of houses citywide. There was no clean water or electricity in the city, and some hotels and hospitals reported diesel fuel shortages. Many telephones, including most cell phones, and Internet access were not working, due to line breaks destruction of base stations or power failures. Mayor Nagin speculated that the death toll could rise as high as ten thousand after the clean up was completed. In the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina looting, violence, and other criminal activity became serious problems. Incapacitated by the breakdown of transportation and communication, as well as overwhelmed in terms of numbers, that police officers could do little to stop crime, and shopkeepers who remained behind to defend their property alone (Staff Writer). Along with violent, armed robbery of non-essential valuable goods, many incidents were of residents’ simply gathering food, water and other essential commodities from un-staff grocery stores. There were also reports of looting by some police officers (Fisher). “Sniper fire” was also reported throughout the city, targeted at rescue helicopters, relief workers, and police officers. One of the possibilities of the sniper fire was resistance to relocate or evacuate (Jonsson). The Superdome one of the largest structures was a place where evacuees were brought to wait out the storm or to wait for further evacuation news. Despite increasingly horrified conditions the population inside continued to grow. The situation inside the building was described as chaotic; reports of fights, rape, and filthy living conditions were widespread. Governor Kathleen Blanco declared a mandatory evacuation of all those remaining in New Orleans. The evacuation of remaining evacuees proved more difficult than rescue organizations anticipated as transporting conveys struggled with damaged infrastructure and a growing number of evacuees.

Bibliography

John A. Kilpatrick and Sofia Dermisi. “The Aftermath of Katrina:Recommendations for Real Estate Research”. Journal of Real Estate Literature, Spring 2007.

Staff Writer. “New Orleans braces for monster hurricane”. CNN. August 29, 2005.

Fisher, David. “Kiwi cop one of six remaining in Katrina aftermath”. New Zealand Herald.

September 26, 2005.

Jonsson, Patrick. “In New Orleans, not everybody wants to be rescued”. Christian Science Monitor. September 29, 2005.